Lest We Forget
by WhyTK
Summary: The Collins family says goodbye to an old friend.


**"Lest We Forget"**

"Unto Almighty God we commend the soul of our shipmate departed, and we commit his body to the earth, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life when the earth shall give up her dead in the light of the world to come.  
Amen."

"Amen."

William H. Loomis died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 77 on a beautiful spring morning in April 2000. Now it is June 14, Flag Day, and Willie is being laid to rest in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl after the extinct volcanic crater in which it lies.

Elizabeth and her second husband are here.

David is here with his wife Amy, and their children, Barnabas and Elizabeth.  
David has been president of the Collins Canning Co. ever since Elizabeth finally retired.

Amy was born Amy Jennings, a cousin of Roxanne Drew on Roxanne's mother's side. But Amy's hair is dark brown, not the red that is so common among the Jennings women.

Carolyn is here with her husband and Elizabeth Victoria, their three year old daughter. She is also known as Evie, from her initials. This was her father's idea. He noticed the confusion produced by two Elizabeths in the room at the same time, and he thought it would be even worse with three.

Evie has her mother's features and her father's dark hair and the blue eyes of both of her parents.

Evie is crying because her Mommy is crying, which is something Evie has never seen before.

Elizabeth, Carolyn, Amy, young Elizabeth, and Evie are all wearing light blue blouses and darker blue pants suits. This ensemble is the "uniform" of the Collins women. Roxanne Drew loaned such an outfit to Elizabeth on the day after the Night of the Collins Fires, and she had nothing but good luck that day. The uniform of the Collins women is how they pay homage to that.

Carolyn holds Evie in her lap. Evie's father is holding the jacket of Evie's "uniform" because Evie is too young to understand wearing a jacket in Hawaii.

Josette Victoria wears the "uniform" too, but her ensemble also includes a dark blue hat with a very wide brim. She and Barnabas are watching from a discrete distance, because of the crosses on the shoulder boards of the chaplain's dress white uniform. They hold umbrellas between themselves and the sun.

Carolyn did not lie to her mother when she said she was frigid, the morning after the Night of the Collins fires. So she was astonished to find herself falling in love shortly after that. It ended badly, leaving Carolyn's heart frozen harder than ever.

Twenty years passed before she met the man who thawed that frozen heart. And more time passed as she fought her feelings for him, especially since she was determined to never have children, for fear of passing the curse of lycanthropy on to them.

Finally, she screwed up her courage and consulted the highest authorities on dark magic and ancient curses that she knew. She learned that the curse would _not_ be passed on. She learned that lycanthropy was Angelique's curse only on Carolyn, that Angelique had been planning something else for Carolyn's children.

Now Carolyn can not imagine life without her husband and their daughter.

Dr. Julia Hoffman is here, representing the vampire community of Collinsport. As the only Jewish member of that community, she is the only one who can bear the sight of the crosses on the chaplain's uniform. She is dressed like a stereotypical widow: a black dress that covers her from neck to wrists to ankles, black boots, black gloves, and a black hat whose diameter almost equals the width of her shoulders. A thick black veil hangs from the hat. Behind the veil, she is wearing black wrap-around sun glasses.

Roxanne Drew sits beside Julia. Roxanne's chair is at the left end of their row. She holds her clarinet upright on her lap.

The first time Willie went back to Hawaii after the War was December 1991, for the fiftieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor. He wept more than once on that trip. He collapsed at the Punchbowl, where he found multiple mass graves marked:

UNKNOWNS  
USS OKLAHOMA  
PEARL HARBOR  
DECEMBER 7 1941

Willie was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He stayed in school at the insistence of his parents. He wanted to drop out at 16 and become a fisherman, the same as his father and both of his grandfathers.

His mother's father changed his mind. He told Willie, "Look at what a lifetime of fishing has done to your father and his father and me."

Willie joined the Navy shortly after graduation. His first ship was the battleship USS _Oklahoma_.

During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, five torpedoes hit _Oklahoma's _port side. The ship capsized, trapping hundreds of her crew inside the hull.  
32 men were rescued by shipyard workers cutting holes in the ship's bottom.  
448 died.

Willie was lucky. His battlestation was topside, where he could jump overboard and swim to safety when the ship capsized.

It took nearly two years to right and re-float _Oklahoma._ By then her dead had been reduced to bones, most of which could not be identified with the technology of the time.

When Willie returned to Collinwood after his trip, he asked Elizabeth for a favor. She replied, "Anything within my power, Willie. You know that."

"When I die, I want to be buried at the Punchbowl, with my shipmates from the _Oklahoma_. I'll start saving my money right now, to ship my body back to Hawaii when the time comes."

"I'll charter a plane, Willie."

"I can't save that kind of money, Miss Elizabeth!"

"And I won't send your body all the way to Hawaii without an escort, Willie. I'll charter a plane with a cabin big enough for the entire family. And a cargo hold big enough for _all_ of the coffins.

"And I have a favor to ask too, Willie. If you die while school is in session, may I postpone your funeral until summer or the Christmas break, so David and Amy's children can be there?"

Willie choked up as he said, "Yes, Miss Elizabeth! I'll be proud to have 'em there!"

The firing party of seven sailors fires three volleys into the air. Then they move to the position "Present Arms," holding their rifles vertically in front of them.

The mourners stand and hold their hands over their hearts as a first class petty officer in the Navy rating of Musician slowly plays _Taps _on a trumpet. They return to their seats afterwards, except for Roxanne Drew.

Roxanne turns from her place on the left side of the shelter and marches five paces straight ahead. She stops and does a right face and marches straight ahead until she is even with the head of the coffin. She does another right face. She raises her clarinet to her lips and plays _America the Beautiful_ as the pall bearers fold the flag.

Playing _America the Beautiful_ is standard procedure during the folding of the flag. It is usually played by either a band, or by the same trumpet player who played _Taps_. When Willie was arranging his funeral, he asked Roxanne to play it on her clarinet.

Evie knows the song and begins to sing along with Roxanne's playing. Carolyn sees that the singing has stopped Evie's crying, so she does not try to hush Evie. Instead she whispers, "Whisper it, Evie. Whisper the song to Mommy." She sets the example by singing in a whisper herself. Evie whispers the song, and so does her father.

Yesterday, Roxanne practiced with the pall bearers, to get the timing right. She times it perfectly now. When the song is finished, she stands at attention, and holds her clarinet vertically in front of her, the same as the rifles of the firing party, in the position "Present Arms."

The Petty Officer in charge of the pallbearers turns to the Chaplain. The Chaplain slowly salutes the folded flag in the hands of the Petty Officer. After the Chaplain drops his salute, the Petty Officer hands the flag to him. Then the Petty Officer slowly salutes the flag. After he drops his salute, the Petty Officer does an about face and rejoins the pall bearers. The pall bearers march slowly away.

The chaplain does an about face, and approaches Elizabeth. He drops almost to one knee and says, "Ma'am, this flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation, as a token of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loyal friend."

"... loyal friend."  
The usual term is, "... loved one." Elizabeth asked for the substitution because she is not related to Willie, she can not claim him as a "... loved one."

Elizabeth takes a firm grip on the flag with both hands. In a voice choked with emotion, she replies, "Thank you."

**NOTES**  
A. For more information about USS _Oklahoma_, I recommend the following books:  
1\. _Trapped at Pearl Harbor_, by Stephen Bower Young, 1991, Naval Institute Press  
Mr. Young was one of the 32 men rescued by shipyard workers cutting holes  
in _Oklahoma's_ bottom after she capsized.

2\. _Descent Into Darkness_, by Edward C. Raymer, 1996, Presidio Press  
Mr. Raymer was a Navy diver. He and his fellow divers worked on the wrecked ships  
at Pearl Harbor, including the battleships _Arizona_ and _Oklahoma. _

3\. _USS_ _Oklahoma BB37, _by Jeff Phister with Thomas Hone and Paul Goodyear,  
2008, University of Oklahoma Press  
The ship's story, from her construction to the dedication of the USS _Oklahoma _  
memorial on December 7, 2007.

B. In 1998, the battleship USS _Missouri_ [BB63], on whose deck Japan surrendered, was permanently moored in Pearl Harbor as a memorial and museum ship.  
She is moored in the same berth that _Oklahoma_ occupied on December 7, 1941.

The USS _Oklahoma _memorial is a short distance inland from USS _Missouri_.

C. The prayer at the beginning is paraphrased from the burial at sea in the movie  
_Run Silent, Run Deep_. It was released in 1958, the year Michelle Pfeiffer  
and Tim Burton were born.

D. "Carolyn ... was astonished to find herself falling in love shortly after that.  
It ended badly ... "  
This will be my version of the Leviathan storyline in the original _Dark Shadows_.

E. For more information about Willie's service in the Navy, please see chapter 5 of my story _Dark Shadows: Elizabeth's Secret. _


End file.
